“Is it true that all animals are put down on the third day?”The statement that we “dispose of” animals on the third day is completely false. We hear this quite often and cannot imagine how this rumor began. Indeed, Texas State law requires animal shelters to keep stray animals for a minimum of 73 hours, in order to give owners the opportunity to locate and reclaim their animals. However, it is the Klein Shelter's elected policy to keep stray animals a MINIMUM of 5 days. Each of our animals has a surrender form on their kennels, indicating the date of their arrival at our facility. Indeed, at any given time, we have dozens of animals (up to 50 or more) in what we call our Lonely Hearts Club. For a Klein animal to gain membership in the LHC Club, they have to be in residence at least 3 months. We invite shelter visitors to look for the LHC markers when they are shopping to adopt. The only reason we would euthanize an animal soon after arrival would be for humane purposes such as a debilitating injury, health issues that cause suffering, or the exposure and spread of disease to other animals in the shelter.back to top

“Do you work with rescue groups who are offering animals a home?”The Klein Shelter maintains a working affiliation with dozens of breed-specific and local animal rescue and transfer groups with whom we network almost daily. We routinely email photos to our list of breed-specific groups and have placed dozens of animals in good homes using these organizations as liaisons. We welcome any qualified rescue groups that can provide the proper credentials.back to top

“Why can't you be a no-kill shelter?”The Klein Shelter is an open-admission shelter, which means we accept any domestic animals in need. A no-kill shelter is not a viable option for our community at this time for the following reasons:

As a no-kill shelter, we would only be able to accept animals that appear to be immediately adoptable.

As a no-kill shelter, without means of euthanasia, our facility would be full within two weeks, forcing us to turn away all animals until space became available. What would happen to these animals who were refused entry? Statistics show that these rejected animals would be dumped, abused, neglected, killed by inhumane means, or taken to other open-admission shelters such as the Klein Shelter.

Many of the animals deemed adoptable at the point of surrender to these no-kill shelters later develop health or behavioral issues that render them undesirable to adopters. Those animals must then spend the remainder of their lives in cramped cages, with little or no human interaction. Most of these animals will become “emotionally vacant” within a matter of months.

We believe the answer is simple: In order to prevent animal deaths, we must prevent births. Prevention versus maintenance. Every third Thursday of each month, the Klein Shelter offers to the public low-cost spay/neuter (click for info).back to top

“If I bring in a stray, why should I have to pay a fee for doing a good deed?”The shelter is operated by a nonprofit organization and is dependent upon donations, contracts with local municipalities, and our fee structure for survival. The surrender fees are $45 per animal. Some municipalities pay a flat fee each year to reduce their citizens out-of-pocket fees. You may call the Shelter at 903.586.7336 to inquire about surrender fees based on your residence address.

We often receive requests to waive our fees, and if we always did so, we could find ourselves in financial duress. We make every attempt to keep our fees to a minimum, and we regret that those who are kind enough to rescue a stray must incur what may seem to be a financial “punishment” for doing so; however, it cannot be avoided at this time.back to top

“I heard that you will not adopt out certain breeds. Is this true?”This is partially true. Reluctantly, our shelter has a restricted adoption policy on “at-risk” breeds (that is, breeds prone to be abused at the hands of someone seeking an aggressive animal). The breeds we consider to be “at-risk” under our restricted policy are Rottweilers and Dobermans and "Pit Bulls", or mixed breeds with a predominance of these bloodlines. For these animals, we seek out and transfer to highly-qualified, certified, pre-screened, reference-verified, breed-specific rescue groups and SPCA organizations.